Explore Krakow With Teens

Main square in Krakow

The Barbican sits just outside the old city walls

 Next stop, Krakow, Poland.
Poland has been at the top of my list since I was kicked off the train en route to the country 30 years ago. That's a whole other story.
And I must say, Poland lived up to my expectations.
Krakow like Prague is quaint and historical. Unlike Prague, Krakow was destroyed in World War 2. It has been rebuilt to look exactly like it did before the war. The Poles like the Czechs have been governed by many different countries and the architecture, food and culture reflect that mix.

Wawel Castle 

 The old city is small walkable area from the main gate to the castle. There are carriages with horses and a nice trolley system to get around. We stayed at the Hilton Hampton Suites Krakow .  The hotel served a wonderful breakfast, clean rooms and secure location and the best part is it costs just 5,000 Hilton points per room per night. If you pay for a room, it costs just $75 per room per night including buffet breakfast.
The one negative is that this hotel is NOT walking distance from the old city. It is on a trolley route that leads directly to the old city and train station.
But if location is key for you then this may not be the right hotel. The trolley is very inexpensive and runs often. Food in Poland is cheap as well. Polish food is very good and there are lots of inexpensive Polish restaurants.

Locks on the bridge near the Jewish Quarter

For teens, I highly recommend the Wieliczka Salt Mines. It's approximately a 3 mile walk deep underground through the mines. Parts of the mines have been formed into huge ballrooms, pools with monuments and much more. You can book your tickets online and take the train or bus from the Glowny main train station. They are having reduced train in Fall 2017 so you can check this website for updates. 

Inside the main ballroom of the Salt Mine

By Cezary p at the Polish language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2810301

The other day trip from Krakow is a visit to Auschwitz. Auschwitz was the main concentration camp during World War 2. The tour is approximately 3 hours long and the bus ride is 1.5 hours each way so this is an all day excursion. It is sold as a day tour from Krakow, but you can easily do this one on your own and save a ton of money.
I recommend buying your entry tickets online in advance so you get the time that you want and you don't have to wait in line at the entrance. You will choose your time and language when you buy tickets. The tour guides are trained for at least 1 year so they are very knowledgable. The tour is heavy, but moving and really, everyone should visit at least once.
You can reach Auschwitz by public bus from the bus station behind the Glowny train station. The cost is about 15-20 Zloty.

Poland is off the beaten track and wonderfully affordable. That's how we do it at almost free family travel.

FatWallet Shutting Down

Cash back site Fatwallet.com is closing down as of October 9th. I received this email today: 

It's never easy to say goodbye.

Thank you for shopping FatWallet. With sadness, we must inform you that we will be closing our site on Monday October 9th. For over 17 years, it has been our absolute pleasure to help millions of deal hunters like you save money, and we're grateful for your business. While the FatWallet site won't be around anymore, we'll still be helping you find discounts and earn cash back on things you buy every day at our sister site, Ebates.com. It's free to join, so check it out — we know you'll love it. Please immediately request payment for your remaining Cash Back balance. FatWallet's Cash Back program ended May 10, 2016. In accordance with our Terms & Conditions maintenance fees began on June 1, 2017 for any Cash Back balance remaining in an inactive account. If you have not requested payment, FatWallet will deduct an account maintenance fee of $2.00 a month until you have requested payment or your account balance is zero. If you used Fatwallet.com as your cash back shopping portal, cash out now. If you are not using a cash back portal, check out my blog posts on shopping portals.

If If you

BofA posts new rules to slow down churners

From Doctor of Credit, DoC has confirmation from a reliable source that Bank of America has introduced a new limitation on card approvals to slow down churners. The new rules are:

No more than 2 BoA cards in a two month time

No more than 3 BoA cards in a year

No more than 4 BoA cards in 24 months

The good news, is that unlike 5/24, BoA appears to only be looking at their own cards not those from other issuers. 4 cards every two years should still allow us to get a fair amount of value out of BoA.

Personally, this isn't surprising considering that number of cards some people had been getting from BoA. A couple of years back bloggers were openly advertising the fact that you could literally get dozens of BoA Alaska Airlines Visa Signature cards or Cash Back Rewards cards. No more trips to Necker Island financed solely off of BoA.

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/httpswww-doctorofcredit-combank-america-312-rule-credit-card-approvals-contribute-data-points/

New Airline Flies From Carlsbad To Vegas

There's a new airline in town! Cal Jet by Elite Airways will fly from Carlsbad, California to Las Vegas, Nevada. Prices start at $69 one way. Created primarily for business travelers, Cal Jet promotes a beach day for people living in Nevada and a night in Vegas for people living in San Diego. 

There are 4 night packages available as well through Cal Jet's website. Right now, they are offering 4 nights including airfare at the Flamingo Hotel for $179. 

The dates for the packages were Sunday-Thursday or Monday - Friday. But when we put in dates for the following weekend, we were offered a $299 per person package including flights and 4 nights at the Flamingo. If we put in dates for the following month, we were offered the $179 per person package. 

It's another option and depending on what else is available, it could be a good deal. 

US Issues Travel Warning For Cuba

Just this morning, the US is issuing travel warnings and pulling embassy staff out of Cuba. According to CNN this morning:

The US State Department is pulling out all families of employees and nonessential personnel from Cuba, after a string of mysterious attacks against US diplomats.

Several US officials tell CNN that 21 US diplomats and family members became ill after apparent sonic attacks.The American embassy will continue to operate with a 60% reduction in staff. The officials said the US will stop issuing visas in Cuba effective immediately because of the staff reductions and the decision is not described as a retaliatory measure. Officials say there will still be consular officials in the embassy available to assist US citizens in Cuba.

The State Department is also issuing a travel warning, urging Americans not to travel to Cuba because they could also be at risk as some of the attacks against diplomats have taken place at hotels where Americans stay, a senior State Department official told reporters Friday.

Stay tuned for how this news will affect travel plans to Cuba. 

Prague With Teens On A Budget

To be honest, I was concerned about our time in Prague. Everyone I asked said it's the most beautiful city in the world. But when I asked about things to do, everyone said you walk around. 

Walking around may be tops for adults, but it's not even in the top 10 for teens. 

But Prague lived up to its reputation and we found plenty to do. 

First of all, Prague was the only city in Europe that was not destroyed in World War 2. And to be honest, it kind of looks like Disneyland. 

We booked a private tour guide for the afternoon after we arrived. I am not big on tour guides, but my husband likes them and since I was kind of at a loss about how we would fill our time here, I went with it. And it was amazing. Our guide was Kristian from http://www.praguelocalfriends.com/en/

He was funny and engaging for the kids. We sat down with him before the tour began and he reviewed the history of the Czech Republic. Then we left for a 3 hour walking tour. Kristian did not show us the Charles Bridge, the castle or the astronomical clock. 

This was Kristian's off the beaten path tour. He took us to his favorite cafe for typical Czech sandwiches and desserts. He showed us the secret passage ways around the city. He showed us art and architecture, hidden messages in the sidewalk and walls, gardens and birds. 

Sandwiches and dessert at Kristian's favorite cafe

Kristian's favorite cafe inside a hidden passage

Hidden passageway in Prague

Dessert case at Kristian's favorite cafe, I can see why this is his favorite

Giant moving sculpture of Franz Kafka's head

 We stayed at the Ramada City Centre which must be the best deal around. Ramada is part of Wyndham. So every night is 15,000 points. My husband and I each opened a Wyndham credit card so we were awarded 45,000 points each. We used 30,000 points each to book 2 rooms for 2 nights. This Ramada includes a buffet breakfast. If you follow my blog at all, you know how much I love hotels that include breakfast. The rooms were clean, the staff was nice, the breakfast was yummy and the location is very central. Rooms run about 130 Euros per night so this was a huge savings.

Changing of the guard at the Castle

The next day, we walked around Prague. We toured the castle. You can take the tram #22 from the city centre to the castle and then walk down the other other side. Tip: if you want to buy tickets, look for ticket booths away from the entrance gate, the lines will be shorter. Second tip, you don't need tickets to tour the grounds and this might be enough for you. Check the trams for a pass which will be cheaper than paying for each ride.

Check out the architecture in the square across from the castle and check out the view from on top of the Starbucks. Then walk down the other side to check out more small streets. We ate lunch at a medieval cave restaurant which was just okay. There were tons of other restaurants though. 

Prague has one laundramat if you need do a load here. 

This is the turtle

Heading out the gate to walk across the Charles Bridge. Yes, it's crowded. Yes, it's still cool.

One of a million turtle dessert shops in Prague

 There are so many turtle dessert shops in Prague, you will be tempted many, many times to buy one. They sell it as a traditional Czech dessert. But guess what, it's not. And on top of that, it looks way better than it tastes. So consider yourself warned.

Awesome off the beaten path Pizzeria. 

 Besides pizza, we ate a lot of doner kebap. It's filling, yummy and cheap. For dessert, we probably visited Angelato Ice Cream Shop at least twice. You don't want to miss it!
No visit to Prague is complete without touring the Jewish Quarter. You can buy a ticket at the various synagogues and at the tourist office across from the synagogue. Buy the ticket that includes everything....the cemetery, the old synagogue and the spanish synagogue. You will need half a day to see everything and you will want to see it all.

Prague was definitely a highlight of the trip. It is beautiful and there is a lot to do here with teens. And you can definitely visit Prague on a budget.

Kids Fly FREE On SAS

It's back! SAS is offering their kids fly free promotion through October 5th. Here are the details from the airline's website: 

*KIDS CAMPAIGN: Children (2-11 years) and Infants (0-24 months) who are traveling with an adult pay only taxes and fees. Offer is valid for travel between November 1 – December 19, 2017 and  January 8 – May 31, 2018,  from Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Newark, San Francisco and Washington D.C. to Scandinavia and Finland. The offers does not apply for travels between 16/12 2017–8/1 2018 and 24/3–9/4 2018). Book by October 5.

If you have been thinking about flying to Scandinavia and/or Finland or you want to use this to hop over to Europe, now is the time to act. It won't help you for holiday travel, but if you have a flexible schedule, this may be a great deal for you. 
I entered dates from departing LAX on November 5th to Helsinki and returning November 19th. The cost of the flight would be $870 roundtrip. That includes the adult ticket with taxes and about $60 for taxes for the child. 
If this fills a need for you, the promotion ends October 5th. 
You could apply for a Barclays Arrival Plus card and buy your ticket on that card. It will help you reach the $3,000 minimum and then you can use the points to pay for the ticket. Now the two tickets cost you just $300. 
That's how we do almostfreefamilytravel!